Ben Brennan: Menindee’s used to being ignored by its governments. That doesn’t make the death of the Darling any less painful

I grew up around Menindee. The slow death of the Darling River isn’t news to locals but if Australia keeps ignoring this ecological disaster then make no mistake - the Murray dies next, writes Ben Brennan.

Ben Brennan

The AdvertiserFebruary 15, 20192:32pm

RAW: Drone shows diminishing water levels in Darling River near Menindee

February 14, 2019. The Darling River below weir 32 near Menindee. Lower Darling River farmers argue the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has ignored their water needs and instead prioritised northern irrigators and South Australia. (AAP Video/Dean Lewins)

Menindee used to flood.

In the early 90s, during the Christmas school holidays, there was a storm so heavy the town awoke to find the newly re-built Menindee Central School was underwater. It was a dream-come-true for a primary school kid.

It’s not just kids dreaming of waist-high water on the dead flood plains now though.

As kids we were thrilled by the sudden extension of our holidays.

Our parents were frustrated though – they’d warned the NSW Government to shift the building site to somewhere less flood prone.

People in Menindee are used to being ignored by their governments. But that hasn’t made their front row seat to the putrid death of the Darling River any more comfortable.

The Darling feeds billions of litres of water into the Murray at Wentworth near the SA, NSW and Victorian borders. If we don’t save the Darling now then make no mistake — the Murray dies next as a consequence of the same ignorant politics that’s been eroding the Basin’s health for decades.

Pelicans used to flock to the Menindee Lakes.

People older than me tell stories of the flocks of green budgies that used to live there too, and of lakes and a river brimming with silver perch and Murray cod.

What’s left of the perch and cod suffocated to death before all of our eyes thanks to viral videos filmed by locals sick of being ignored.

Pelicans are a rare sight now and I never did see a wild budgie. The river and lakes have been dying a lot longer than Australia’s capital cities care to admit.

Advertiser journalist Ben Brennan's son Charlie Brennan, 3, in the same location on the shore of Lake Menindee in August, 2018. Picture: Tenneale BrennanSource:The Advertiser

It’s hard to imagine even a minor flood ever happening again now.

I have an old friend whose family has lived on the Darling for generations.

His grandmother would recall the ‘56 flood, and the semi-regular floods that inspired the locals living near the river to build their houses on stilts, were she not in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s.

I’m told Flora McInnes barely recognises her own family now. But she cried inconsolably when she overheard her loved ones talking about the ecological disaster that finally made Australia pay attention to the slow death of the Darling.

*Ben Brennan is a journalist at The Advertiser who grew up near Menindee in the 1980s and 1990s.

Lake Menindee dry at Sunset Strip, August 2018

The dry Menindee Lake and village of Sunset Strip, near Menindee, in far western NSW in August 2018.